Dr. R. C. Elphic received his B.S. in Astronomy in 1975 from the
University of Arizona. He attended graduate school at UCLA, receiving
a M.S. in Geophysics and Space Physics in 1978 and a Ph.D. in
1982. Between 1982 and early 1984 he worked as a National Research
Council Postdoctoral Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center with Larry
Brace. He returned to UCLA in 1984 to manage the data reduction of the
International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE 1 and 2) and Active
Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Experiment (AMPTE) UKS magnetometer
projects, and carried out research on these projects. In 1984 he also
served as chairman of the Non-imaging Software subcommittee of the
Planetary Science Analysis Support System (PSASS) study group,
sponsored by the Planetary Science Data Steering Group. He
participated in the testing, calibration and integration of the
Pioneer Venus orbiter and ISEE 1 and 2 magnetometers, and in the
development of the reduction and analysis software for these and the
AMPTE UKS flight projects. Presently a member of the plasma team in
the Space and Atmospheric Sciences group at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, he is involved in the design and development of plasma
analyzers and ion mass spectrometers for spaceflight on future NASA
and DOE missions. He is also contributing to Los Alamos studies of
future space initiatives, in particular the application of plasma ion
mass spectrometry to remote sensing of the lunar atmosphere and
surface. He is a past member of NASA's Lunar Exploration Science
Working Group (LExSWG), and is presently a member of the Science
Definition Team for a Mercury orbiter mission study supported by NASA
Office of Space Science. He is lead investigator for the magnetic
fields experiment on the NASA "FAST" small Explorer mission,
a co-investigator on the ESA/NASA CLUSTER mission magnetometer team,
and a member of the LANL Lunar Prospector mission team. He has
authored or co-authored over 125 papers in journals and books, and is
a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Honor Society of Phi
Kappa Phi, and a full member of Sigma Xi.